Employment Diversity – Has Ofcom been nobbled by the TV industry?

When it comes to diversity, Ofcom is being captured by the broadcasting industry.

The author and others discussing diversity in broadcasting at the Royal Television Society. Image: Royal Television Society.

There
is phenomenon called “regulatory capture.” It is a form of
failure that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the
public interest, instead advances the commercial or political
concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry or
sector it is charged with regulating.

Regulatory
capture often happens because people from the industries they
represent have privileged access to the regulator in the course of
their work and at expensive industry events, beyond those without
corporate expenses, where the regulated and the regulators mix and
mingle informally. To be fair, Ofcom says that holding one public
meeting a year in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales,
where the public is given 30 minutes to ask questions about the Ofcom
annual plan, demonstrates that no one has privileged access.

Ofcom
showed the first signs of regulatory capture last week at its annual
public meeting in London when it was asked about seeking and
publishing programme diversity data from broadcasters. The Campaign
for Broadcasting Equality has argued that Ofcom should publish simple
on and off screen diversity data on the top ten programmes in every
genre – to provide evidence that employment diversity is not being
pushed to the margins. The entertainment union, BECTU, wants to see
diversity data on prime time programmes that employ more than fifty
people, with just one data set for a series and just one data set for
the reporting period for continuing programmes.

Tony
Close is Ofcom’s Director of Content Standards, Licensing and
Enforcement. He is responsible for “Monitoring diversity and
equality of opportunity in broadcasting.” What Ofcom says about
diversity in its annual plan sounds good:

“We
will publish a new annual monitoring report on ‘Diversity in
Broadcasting’, based on equal opportunities data and information on
diversity initiatives from broadcasters. This report will provide a
comprehensive picture of how well each broadcaster – and the
industry as a whole – is performing on staff diversity.”

But
when Ofcom was asked about publishing programme diversity data, Ofcom
suggested it was only a matter for “Project Diamond” – the TV
industry-controlled
project
that Close said has chosen
not to report on a programme by programme basis “because some
programme making teams are so small that to release the data would be
likely to identify individuals and the information they have given
about their protected characteristics.”

This
reasoning is nonsense and Ofcom should know it. The BBC has reported
“the
editorial department of Holby City included 40% BAME employees.” An
"editorial department" on Holby City represents a much
higher level of granularity than either the Campaign for Broadcasting
Equality or BECTU is seeking.

As
for size, the Arts Council now publishes annual diversity data on all
National Portfolio Organisations and Major Partner Museums who employ
more than 50 staff.

With
Project Diamond, the television broadcasters are collecting very
detailed diversity data. Ofcom should require all radio and
television broadcast licensees to supply it with the simple diversity
data the Campaign for Broadcasting Equality and BECTU seek and Ofcom
should publish it for the top ten programme in each genre which
employ more than fifty staff.

Ofcom
must also clarify that when it reports on “broadcasters”, it will
publish equality monitoring data for each licence. BAME broadcasting
workers have long complained of being ghettoised into working in
areas and licences focussed on BAME content and not being hired to
work on mainstream licences.

As
yet, radio has no Project Diamond to collect diversity data. Unless
Ofcom seeks diversity data per radio licence, the picture on major
issues, such as the ghettoisation of BAME workers in some areas and
their complete absence from others, will remain hidden. Data for only
Global Radio would mask individual data for LBC, Capital, Heart,
Capital XTRA, Classic FM, Smooth, LBC, Radio X and Gold which
together broadcast to 24.6 million listeners.

Under
its earlier leadership, Ofcom did the bare minimum to fulfill its
statutory requirements under Sections
27 and 337 of the Communications Act. Early last year, Culture
Minister, Ed Vaziey, reassured diversity campaigners that Ofcom would
now be “looking at the maximum possible under the duties.”

In
November, Sharon White, Ofcom CEO, said that diversity
is “an area where we have not done enough in the past, and it is
now a priority for us.” Ofcom’s unquestioning acceptance of the
industry line on programme diversity data is a poor start. Ofcom
should think again – and quickly.

About the author

Simon Albury is Chair of the Campaign for
Broadcasting Equality and a former CEO of the Royal Television Society. In 1969
he was a member of Granada Television's World In Action Investigative Bureau.

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